Rachel Dolezal to address furor over her race. Who defines racial identity?
Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane, Wash. chapter of the NAACP, has said she will publicly address the controversy around her race and ethnicity on Monday.
Rachel Dolezal, president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, poses for a photo in her Spokane, Wash. home. Dolezal is facing questions about whether she lied about her racial identity, with her family saying she is white but has portrayed herself as black.
Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review via AP/File
Civil rights leader Rachel Dolezal has said she will respond to the controversy surrounding her racial identity in a statement Monday night, the Associated Press .
Ms. Dolezal, who is president of the Spokane, Wash. chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and who has long asserted that she is at least partly of African-American heritage, has been accused of lying about her ethnicity after her parents said .
The revelation has sparked global discussion about the definitions of racial identity, and聽what it means to be black in today's world.聽
鈥淎s you probably know by now, there are questions and assumptions swirling in national and global news about my family, my race, my credibility, and the NAACP,鈥� Dolezal said in a message to NAACP members. 鈥淚 have discussed the situation, including personal matters, with the Executive Committee,鈥� which will make its statement on Monday, she added.
鈥淭he Executive team asked that I also release my response statement at the same time, which will be during the 7 to 9 p.m. monthly membership meeting,鈥� Dolezal said.
The NAACP has so far supported Dolezal, who has served as president of the Spokane branch since January and been . 鈥淥ne鈥檚 racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership,鈥� the organization, which added that it stands by Dolezal鈥檚 record, .
鈥淸W]e encourage Americans of all stripes to become members and serve as leaders in our organization,鈥� the group said.
But Dolezal鈥檚 鈥� identifying a black man as her father; misrepresenting her ethnicity on government forms; and referring to her dark curls as 鈥渘atural鈥� though she was born with straight, blonde hair 鈥� has led some to say her actions belittle the meaning and experience of black identity.
鈥淩achel Dolezal 鈥� may be connected to black communities and feel an affinity with the styles and cultural innovations of black people,鈥� Alicia Walters, a Spokane native who founded and is herself black, wrote in 聽for The Guardian. 鈥淏ut the black identity cannot be put on like a pair of shoes.鈥�
Dolezal's actions showed the world that a person can be black without the burden of having lived through it,聽rendering invisible the experiences that forge a black woman鈥檚 identity, Ms. Walters added.
Which leads to another, crucial part of the discussion: Who or what is responsible for defining a person鈥檚 race?
Dolezal insists on calling herself black, even in the face of evidence against the contrary, because she believes that self-definition is the only definition that matters, Michael P. Jeffries, an associate professor of African-American studies at Wellesley College, 聽for The Boston Globe.
鈥淏ut that鈥檚 not how racial identity and racism work,鈥� Mr. Jeffries noted. Dolezal鈥檚 choice to give up whiteness is a privilege not afforded to blacks who want to give up blackness 鈥� a reality based on a racial logic that allows for the possibility of a light-skinned black person but not a brown-skinned white person, he added.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 key is you can鈥檛 choose your position in the hierarchy,鈥� Slate鈥檚 Jamelle Bouie .聽There will always be a fundamental difference between someone who has created for herself聽the experience of being black, and someone who has no choice in the matter, he added.
Is Dolezal only black when the experience would benefit her in some way? Mr. Bouie asked. There鈥檚 no way to know, and according to Bouie, that鈥檚 what鈥檚 troubling: 鈥淚t feels like Dolezal is adopting the culture without carrying the burdens,鈥� he wrote.
Still, Dolezal has some support among those who see her actions as a way of embracing, wholesale, the struggle for civil rights and racial equality.
鈥淭here鈥檚 an alternative response to the Rachel Dolezal story, one where we applaud a fellow human being for abandoning unearned racial privilege,鈥� Thuli Madonsela, who serves as public protector, or ombudsman, of South Africa.
Closer to home, James Wilburn, a former Spokane NAACP president, told KULR in Billing, Mont.: 鈥淲hite, black, it didn鈥檛 matter. She had a lot of passion for human rights and that鈥檚 what mattered.鈥�